Toshiba recently launched a new initiative, the Mastering Memory Roadshow. Toshiba Middle East and Africa kick-started the roadshow in Dubai, before bringing it all the way to South Africa, and then back to the Gulf. For the event, they’ve invited world renowned Memory Master, David Thomas

A Sunday Time’s best-selling author, David Thomas has broken Guinness® and world memory records in the past. David has successfully harnessed his unique talents to become sought after motivational speaker, memory master and media personality. In the last 20 years, he has spoken in 21 countries, been in the media over 500 times in the media and appeared on television in 150 countries.

David flew in to conduct a Masterclass on how to improve memory by discovering new ways to upgrade memory skills, which is especially useful in an information-driven society where good memory can be a strong advantage; helping us become more organized and increasing our learning abilities. David’s masterclass actually boasts of an 80% increase in memory retention rates for delegates.

A first-of-its-kind initiative by Toshiba MEA, the roadshow prioritizes students and the youth as they are the future generation. In this regard, Toshiba has partnered with universities in Johannesburg and Cape Town for this interactive and highly enlightening event – namely, University of Witwatersrand-Johannesburg and University of the Western Cape this October 2017.

Toshiba Middle East and Africa’s General Manager, Santosh Varghese shares “We are truly excited about this initiative. We have been working hard to bringing the Mastering Memory Roadshow to life, and making it available in South Africa. In line with Toshiba’s ongoing campaign, we want to help students preserve their memories not only in Toshiba’s acclaimed storage solutions, but also in their own minds. Hence, the roadshow gives attendees the power to master their analogue memories as well as their digital ones.”

The range of storage solutions from Toshiba suit a variety of specific data storage requirements with smart and easy backup solutions. Always at the forefront of innovation, Toshiba storage devices work with the latest technologies and gadgets, including the newest mobile phones, tablets, laptops and cameras. In today’s world where our memories are stored as digital documents, photos and videos, Toshiba gives users peace of mind through fast, simple and reliable backup of data.

The roadshow commenced in Dubai, followed by Johannesburg and Cape Town capping off the trip in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia towards the end of October. Toshiba hopes this roadshow would be the first of many, and are looking forward to bringing it to schools and universities around the region.

Last week I went to the launch of the Nokia 8 at the Park Hyatt Dubai. In a few words, the Nokia 8 can be described as a fun, high performance, beautifully crafted smartphone, designed with us creative and adventurous teenagers in mind.

During the launch we had lots of fun on social media platforms with various experiences at the event and shared loads of pictures on our social media accounts. The best part about Nokia 8 is the fact that it xecels in both selfies and bothies.

While my mum had loads of fun with selfies which she is great at, I checked out the Nokia 8 for the new bothie option – it is a world-first in enabling Dual-Sight video to be livestreamed natively and in real-time to social feeds such as Facebook and YouTube.

Having the Dual-Sight feature means that simultaneously both the front and rear cameras are seen in a split screen visual for both photos and videos. With just one touch, this world-first livestream capability gives more immersive experiences and shows more of what is happening around the area.

At the event, we walked around the room and did various activities using the features but my favourite remains the vide option showing what is happening both at the front and behind the phone.

The other thing we teens are conscious about is looks – now I expected a normal Nokia design to be a bit bulky and plain but their smart phones now look absolutely fabulous and modern. Plus the phones come with a beautifully designed Nokia Active Wireless Headset – naturally the more cool kids would also go for portable speakers, in-car chargers, cases and screen protectors and these are all options one can have.

The new Nokia 8 is available in four colours: Polished Blue, Polished Copper, Tempered Blue and Steel and will be available in the UAE at an average retail price of 1699 AED starting September 21, 2017.

“Accept only perfection, only manufacture watches of the highest quality”. More than just a motto, this is a philosophy embedded in the DNA of Baume & Mercier since 1830. Profoundly attached to the Swiss Made label, the Maison produces all its watches in the Swiss Jura and adopts a deliberate historical approach – known as “établissage” – that has shaped its success. In contemporary language, this term refers to in-house mastery of the key stages of watch development, assembly, quality control and maintenance, and calls upon the finest watch specialists to produce its components. A pledge of quality, reliability and performance – and all at the fairest price. Close-up and personal with Baume & Mercier.

As one of the oldest Swiss watch Maisons, Baume & Mercier has been shining in the watch industry firmament for almost two centuries. Such longevity commands respect and the inevitable question comes to mind: what is the recipe behind this success? The key ingredient is undoubtedly expertise, continuously distilled with authentic passion. This perpetually enriched heritage features two other essential elements: rigorous discipline and carefully controlled movements. All enhanced with a timeless flavor.

B for Baume

The story begins in the mid-19th century in the Swiss Jura, with the creation of a family firm that developed rapidly. The two siblings Louis-Victor and Joseph-Célestin found themselves at the head of “Baume Frères” and set up a subsidiary company in London, before extending their watchmaking reach to encompass the entire British Empire. Their combined assets – notably commercial flair and rigorous industrial standards – helped spread the brand’s reputation across borders. Known for its classical watches, chronographs and grand complication models, it won a number of international prizes, particularly for the precision of its models. In the early 1920s, William Baume, representing the third generation of the watchmaking dynasty, associated with Paul Mercier in founding “Baume & Mercier” in Geneva, where the brand has its current headquarters. In this temple of luxury watchmaking, the Maison became one of the most active firms in the realm of wristwatches. Expressed through a blend of horological mastery and timeless elegance, the founders’ vision has lived on through a dedication to making high-quality watches incorporating the latest technological advances.

Epitomizing the very best

In almost 200 years, the watchword of the Baumes brothers has been scrupulously upheld and applied. One might almost imagine it echoing through the corridors of the Maison. This imperative demand for quality, matched by the fairest possible cost, is based on an historical artisan-style production method: établissage. The term carries echoes of the past, just as it should do! In the 19th century when the Baume family opened a watch dealership in the Swiss Jura, its watches were assembled from components made by specialized artisans, each dedicated to a specific part of the watch. Based on the établissage mode of operation, the Maison Baume handled the making of the finished product, and its subsequent sale. Much later, at the dawn of the 21st century, Baume & Mercier returned to its roots and set up its Ateliers Horlogers in Les Brenets, a village of its native Jura. Adopting a meticulously careful approach based on manual craftsmanship, the Maison thus revived the “Frères Baume” approach while incorporating all the assets of modern times. The “établissage 2.0” concept at Baume & Mercier – an original artisanal method applied to the modern era – is notably designed by in-house control of each stage involved in creating a watch: design, development, assembly and quality control. It also implies drawing on the know-how of the finest specialists when it comes to component production. The core of this organizational mode consists in scrupulous attention devoted to every detail, along with the patience and dexterity of passionately dedicated watchmakers with a sure, deft touch.

Swiss made, for ever and ever

Ever since its origins, Baume & Mercier has made its watches in Switzerland. In the course of its history, the quality, innovation and precision of its creations have earned it numerous distinctions, of which some have been patented. These stringent standards were rewarded in the 1920s by the “Poinçon de Genève” quality hallmark, the highest certification of watchmaking craftsmanship. The demand for quality, a full-fledged corporate philosophy at Baume & Mercier, has been a constant characteristic right from the beginning. A fervent ambassador of the ‘Swiss made’ label, the Maison designs and develops its movements in its own design studio inside its Geneva headquarters. All of them are subsequently assembled and tested in its Ateliers Horlogers in Les Brenets, in the Swiss Jura. These light-filled, perfectly equipped workshops also handle after-sales service and restoration of vintage models.

A perfectly balanced identity

In the 1960s, Baume & Mercier adopted the Greek letter “Phi” as its visual identity. Now the brand logo, this “golden number” symbolizes finely balanced proportions. It lays the foundations of the archetypal aesthetic – the traditional round watch – as well as the ‘affordable luxury’ status of Baume & Mercier. Through its collections, the Maison offers both classically understated watches as well as chronographs with various useful functions. Women’s models enjoy a special place within this sphere of quality watchmaking at an affordable price. This close attention to their needs and wishes goes back a long way: in 1869, one of the Baume brothers gave his daughter a gold pocket watch; and between 1920 and 1940, the brand offered a number of modern and inventive feminine models, some of which are now legends. Today, two lines are exclusively dedicated to them: Promesse and Linea.

C for classic, and more besides…

Firmly rooted in the Baume & Mercier values, a mixed approach appealing to both men and women also characterizes the brand’s two flagship collections: Classima and Clifton. As its name implies, Classima – inspired by a 1965 ultra-thin automatic watch with a micro-rotor – comprises elegant and classical watches. Its range of sizes, materials, Swiss made mechanical and quartz movements, features a blend of understated elegance and technical refinement. Housing Swiss mechanical movements in both men’s and women’s timepieces, the Clifton range is intended for urbanites with a taste for Fine Watchmaking. Aesthetically speaking, the collection draws inspiration from a 1950s model, the epitome of traditional and artisanal watchmaking according to Baume & Mercier. In 2017, the new Clifton Club range marks a turning point in the history of Baume & Mercier, by reinterpreting the ultimate sports watch – one that accompanies urban, active and elegant men on every occasion.

Offering luxury watches embodying the full spectrum of Swiss expertise and featuring an excellent quality-price ratio: such is the enduring mission of Baume & Mercier, and a promise duly kept.

LG Electronics (LG) was a big winner at this year’s Red Dot Design Awards, earning an impressive 20 total Red Dot Awards for excellence in design, including two Best of the Best awards. The top Best of the Best awards were given to LG’s SIGNATURE OLED TV W and Smart InstaView refrigerator for their innovation and contribution to the design community.

The LG SIGNATURE OLED TV W features an awe-inspiring Picture-on-Wall design that takes the TV concept and turns it into a piece of art. Red Dot recognized LG’s InstaView Door-in-Door™ refrigerator for successfully combining a beautiful appliance with interactive technology.

Epson announces new business projectors to offer impactful presentations around the office and on the move. Designed for SMEs and corporates, the EB-1795F and EB-2265U deliver effective, high-quality Full HD presentations with large display sizes. They also take advantage of interactive and smart presenting features, such as gesture control and screen mirroring. Set-up is hassle free thanks to focus help, Auto Power On, copy OSD settings, auto keystone correction and screen fit, as well as a variety of connectivity options such as HDBaseT and Wireless LAN, dual HDMI and screen mirroring. An increased lamp life of up to 10,000 hours in eco mode reduces maintenance times and servicing.

The Montblanc Augmented Paper Writing is a Gift Edition consists of an elegant leather envelope organizer in indigo blue, and contains a notebook and a StarWalker writing instrument featuring custom-made technology to be exclusively used for this new product. Made of elegant Italian leather with a soft tactile feel and a sophisticated matt effect, the Augmented paper organizer is a sleek and stylish object thanks to the highest level of craftsmanship nurtured at the Montblanc Pelletteria in Florence, where century-old traditions and skills bring the spirit of innovation to life. The innovative technology of Augmented Paper offers best-in-class handwriting recognition in 12 languages so that notes written by hand can be seamlessly transferred to a mobile device and translated into digital text for searching, editing and sharing.

One of the take home messages from the recent VeemON 2017 conference in New Orleans was understanding how Veeam enables its resellers and service providers to help customers move to and manage data in a Multi-Cloud or Hybrid Cloud environment, while greatly expanding the total addressable market to manage and protect public cloud and physical workloads.

With a number of key announcements, we learnt how the new Veeam Accredited Service Partner (VASP) program drives partner services revenue and engagement, with award-winning support as well as how Veeam is strengthening its leadership position with two models – Backup as a Service (BaaS) and Disaster recovery as a Service (DRaaS) market. We bring you highlights from each day of the conference in New Orleans.

DAY 1 Highlights

The day started with a keynote by Peter McKay, Co-CEO and President of Veeam on the need for availability, which was the theme of this year’s VeemOn event. He touched on Veeam’s growth, market share, and why Availability is a requirement for Digital Transformation.

The team also announced that Veeam Software, the innovative provider of solutions that delivers Availability for the Always-On Enterprise™, is unveiling several partner-centric initiatives and offerings to help them drive revenue growth and leverage business opportunities as customers move to a Multi-Cloud or Hybrid Cloud environment.

The new offerings in Veeam ‘Always-On Cloud’ Availability Platform enable service providers and resellers to help customers migrate to and manage data in a Multi-Cloud environment while greatly expanding revenue opportunities to manage and protect public cloud and physical workloads.

The new offerings and programs, specifically designed and priced for service delivery model, include and support:

A NEW Veeam Cloud and Service Provider Directory to connect VARs and VCSPs;

Increased Professional Services Revenue and customer satisfaction with the NEW Veeam Accredited Service Provider program.

To understand the brand’s reach, we learn that Veeam has 47,000 Veeam ProPartners and 15,000 VCSPs offering backup and disaster recovery services, including 2,900 partners who use Veeam Cloud Connect to offer backup and disaster recovery in the Cloud.

During the different sessions through the day and with endorsements from partners, customers and resellers, it was evident that Veeam is a preferred and an indispensable partner for innovative cloud backup and disaster recovery solutions to help global customers protect critical business applications and data.

DAY 2 Highlights

Day 2 revealed how Veeam brings powerful innovations designed to deliver to consumers a seamless Digital Life experience. Users want the confidence of knowing that their information is available whenever and wherever they need it. The key take home messages from the second day that the NEW Veeam Availability Suite v10 drives non-stop business continuity, digital transformation agility and analytics & visibility to new levels.

We also learnt how NEW Veeam CDP helps customers to protect and recover Tier-1 and mission-critical applications and that the NEW Veeam Availability for AWS offers industry’s first cloud-native, agentless backup and Availability solution to protect AWS apps and data. The NEW Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows provides ‘Always-On Cloud’ Availability for Windows-based physical servers and endpoints, as well as applications running in Microsoft Azure, AWS and other public clouds.

It was also announced that the NEW Extending Veeam ‘Always-On Cloud’ Availability Platform with new Universal Storage API framework; IBM, Lenovo and Infididat join Veeam’s storage partner ecosystem.

Veeam helps businesses across the globe enable seamless Digital Life experiences with Veeam Availability Suite for the ‘Always on Cloud’ and Veeam Availability Suite delivers a fundamentally new kind of solution by providing the following:

Non-Stop Business Continuity to deliver user confidence that their Digital Life will be available when, where and how they want it. Instantly recover – cross-cloud anything to anywhere. Backup, replication and continuous data protection (CDP) for Multi-Cloud or Hybrid Cloud environment wherever it is: private, public, managed or SaaS;

Analytics and Visibility with actionable insights for data management, operational performance and compliance across your entire infrastructure. Enterprises can now monitor, analyze and act with confidence. Veeam and its ecosystem of partners provide robust data analytics and discovery, simplified data management, workflow automation and more.

According to Peter McKay, co-CEO and President at Veeam. “As enterprises move to the Cloud, Veeam ensures Availability of services, applications and data in Multi-Cloud and Hybrid-Cloud environments.

He added, “Over the last 10 years Veeam has been the primary innovator in the space, with many industry first capabilities and highly differentiated solutions for private, managed, public and SaaS clouds, and at VeeamON we’re raising the bar even further. With these new innovations across the Platform and ecosystem, Veeam is once again pioneering the market.”

DAY 3 Highlights

Day 3 saw us doing more interviews with key Veeam management and we learnt how Veeam and Microsoft Extend Storage Alliance will Deliver Unprecedented Availability for the Always-On Cloud.

Veeam enables businesses to deliver the Digital Life experience users expectation by protecting applications and data running in Hybrid Cloud and leveraging cloud backup and disaster recovery based on Microsoft Azure and Veeam ‘Always-On Cloud’ Availability Platform for non-stop business continuity, agility and lower costs.

Availability for the Always-On Enterprise™ has new capabilities protecting applications and data running in Hybrid Cloud, leveraging backup and disaster recovery based on Microsoft Azure and Veeam “Always-On Cloud” Availability Platform.

When a disaster strikes, businesses of all sizes need a reliable solution for on-demand DR in the cloud. Day 3 highlighted the long-standing alliance between Veeam and Microsoft that allows customers to benefit from the following:

The cloud makes disaster recovery affordable for businesses of any size, but many of them still struggle to properly manage the complex disaster recovery process, including data restore and network setup and configuration for seamless user experience.

The NEW Veeam PN for Microsoft Azure is a powerful solution designed to simplify and automate the setup of a DR site in Azure using lightweight software-defined networking (SDN). It helps maintain business continuity and availability by eliminating the complexity of VPN deployments and is designed for businesses of all sizes and service providers.

Veeam also announced a new Scale Out Backup Repository (SOBR) support for cloud object storage as an Archive Tier extent. This new functionality, arriving with Veeam Availability Suite v10, enables customers to archive Veeam backups to Azure Blob storage. This native support helps customers to leverage Azure to reduce long-term data archival, retention and compliance costs.

Microsoft announced that it will enable all Azure customers to access and use disks in Azure up to 4TB in size (previously 1TB). This enhancement means Veeam customers can fully realize a more cost-effective solution using a Veeam virtual appliance to back up four times as much data in Azure Storage. This feature will be available mid 2017.

Veeam then announced an update to its SaaS Availability solution, Veeam Backup for Office 365, which more than 11,000 organizations are already using, just four months after release. In this update, a multi-tenant architecture enables protecting larger Office 365 deployments with a single installation, while empowering Veeam Cloud and Service Providers (VCSPs) to deliver Office 365 backup services.

Furthemore, Veeam has introduced enhanced automation options via RESTful API and PowerShell SDK to minimize management overheads, improve recovery times and reduce costs. And looking ahead, the next version of Veeam Backup for Office 365 is already in development, which will include much-requested support for SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business.

Regional Designers, Architects and Construction Professionals Experience the Future of Making Things at Autodesk University Middle East

Venturing into the fifth edition of Autodesk University Middle East (AU Middle East) at the Dubai World Trade Center recently, I had some exciting hands on experience that involved cutting edge innovation with 3D printing technologies, Virtual Reality and brought me up close to Engineering and Entertainment software that left me and the other visitors enthralled.

As promised, the event provided a platform for Autodesk users across the region to learn, connect, and explore, showcasing new ways that buildings, products and more are being designed, made and used, and the effect revolutionary new technology will have on this region.

Speaking to numerous exhibitors, organisers and spokespeople, we found that this year’s event provided an inspiring platform for everyone in the industry to get insights into the future of design; whether that is architectural, technological or fashion.

According to Callan Carpenter, VP, Global Named Accounts at Autodesk, “Technology is radically disrupting the way buildings and infrastructure are designed, built, and used. As a result, the implication for the future of making things is huge. Our aim was to inspire the regional design community via insightful keynotes, specialized industry classes, Autodesk Certification exams, and premium networking opportunities.”

Autodesk delegates were engaged with a number of keynote sessions by industry experts to learn what the future of making things in the region has to offer. Sessions included Tom Wujec and Callan Carpenter’s opening keynote on The Future of Making Things, the accessibility of Autodesk Cloud Services, a 4D simulation workshop, and many more.

Louay Dahmash, Head of Autodesk Middle East and Turkey said, “AU Middle East was created to enable industry professionals to engage with global speakers like Tom Wujec and take a peek into the latest technology innovations that have continually disrupted the way buildings are designed and constructed in our region. It was also a great platform for attendees to understand what technologies are going to shape the manufacturing and entertainment industries and discover how these inventions are changing the future of making things in the Middle East.”

During the walkthrough of the exhibition, I explored the Autodesk Gallery to came across stories of exceptional design and engineering from across the globe that gave an in-depth look as to how Autodesk has helped talented individuals imagine, design, and create a better world.

Autodesk showcased how VR and real-time technologies are bringing architectural designs to life all while exploring insights in the Gulf region on the value of BIM (Building Information Modeling), and what factors are holding back entities from adopting it.

It was an experience packed with elements of innovation including 3D printing technologies, advances in Virtual Reality, and the latest technology available to designers and engineers.

Autodesk University (AU) is a series of conferences and an online learning destination focused on inspiring and energizing Autodesk software users, partners, and industry leaders about the future of design and engineering.

Formerly the event was hosted as Autodesk University Extension Dubai. With the growth of the event over the last four years, Autodesk Middle East transformed the event into a full-fledged Autodesk University event to inspire more people in the region to design, build and create a better world.

Now in its 24th year, the AU conferences bring together more than 25,000 participants at live events in 15 countries through classes, forums, and keynotes with product experts and thought leaders. Hundreds of thousands more participate through AU online, which offers free year-round access to learning content and inspirational industry talks from the AU conference events.

The annual event has become a magnet for the regional design community and acts as a catalyst to further accelerate innovation and growth across diverse sectors in the Middle East.

Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG) recently revealed their latest Flagship device, the long-awaited Huawei Mate 9 together with Huawei’s new cloud based platform, Higame, an android mobile game download platform that Huawei provides to its users.

The Huawei Mate 9 is a dynamic interplay of industry-leading hardware and advanced software that work together to keep users a step ahead. Building on Huawei’s success in delivering beautifully-designed and powerful mobile devices, the newest member of the Mate Series delivers business users a breakthrough Android experience, featuring the fastest computing performance available today and breakthrough SuperCharge technology.

The Huawei Mate 9 Series debuts the premium Kirin 960 chipset with Huawei’s Machine Learning Algorithm. Huawei’s Kirin chipsets have powered users with everything they expect from their mobile devices, speed, intuition and reliability. It delivers a fast and smooth experience. The Kirin 960 also takes full advantage of the pioneering Vulkan graphics standard on Android 7.0, increasing graphics performance by up to 400 percent.

The HUAWEI Mate 9 combines a high-density battery with Huawei’s all new SuperCharge technology. With its advanced power saving technology, the HUAWEI Mate 9increases battery life to provide over two days of uninterrupted performance. The battery sets a new standard in charging technology including Super Safe 5-gate protection, which offers real-time voltage, current and temperature monitoring to eliminate safety hazards and safeguard battery life.

Following the incredible success of the Huawei P9, the HUAWEI Mate 9 features the second-generation dual-lens camera co-engineered with Leica. Huawei and Leica have continued to improve and enhance the optical performance of the camera module that produces stunning photography and impressive superior night shot capability.

The Huawei Mate 9 builds upon the Mate Series’ highly-regarded design DNA and uses the finest materials to deliver a phone that’s both beautifully designed and comfortable to use. Every detail – from the soft sandblasted texture to the gorgeous color palette, including Space Gray, Moonlight Silver, Champagne Gold, Mocha Brown and Ceramic White, is a result of more than 25 years’ experience in delivering refined craftsmanship.

With the introduction of EMUI 5.0, the HUAWEI Mate 9 reimagines the native Android operating system using Linux to improve the experience, aesthetics and functionality. With EMUI 5.0, the Mate 9 becomes more intelligent and efficient over time by understanding consumers’ behavior patterns, and ensures the highest priority applications are given preference concerning system resources.

The HUAWEI Mate 9 is available in stores across the UAE. Available colours include Champagne Gold, Mocha Brown, Space Gray, and Moonlight Silver in 64GB and at a retail price of AED 2,299.